Essential Reporting: The NCTJ Guide for Trainee Journalists

This is a book for everyone who wants to be a journalist: a practical guide to all you need to know, learn, and do to succeed as a trainee reporter in today′s newsroom.

Although the world of journalism is changing fast, as technology blurs the boundaries between newspapers, radio, television and web-based media, the reporter′s core role remains the same: to recognize news, communicate with people, gather information, and create accurate, balanced, and readable stories.

Essential Reporting, written by an experienced NCTJ examiner, explains how to do this. Contents include:

• What makes a good reporter
• What is news, and how to find it
• How newsrooms work
• Day-to-day life as a reporter
• Key reporting tasks
• Covering courts and councils
• Successful interviewing
• Writing news stories
• Specialist reporting
• Handling sound, pictures and the web

It also contains a wealth of advice, tips and warnings from working journalists, a guide to NCTJ training and examinations, a glossary and a guide to further reading.

It will be invaluable to anyone embarking on a career in journalism and is the NCTJ′s recommended introductory text for all students on college and university courses preparing them to become successful reporters.